Customer Reviews

Shall We Dance: The Life of Ginger Rogers

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'Snide' is the term I would use to describe the tone of this book. I settled in to read some tidbits about the personal life of a legendary star, who has brought many hours of delightful entertainment into the life of my family. Instead, I found this book to be very unbalanced in its treatment of Ginger Rogers; I do not recollect that one kind word was spoken about her. Surely a lovely woman who brought such beauty into the world deserves a 'thank you'; she does not deserve to be referred to as a cranky old bat in a wheelchair. Extremely disappointing, and a poor quality book with many typographical errors. I will continue to have great respect for Ms. Rogers, and I will keep searching for a biography with a kinder, fairer treatment of her.

This is a true hack job: all the nastiest and most spurious anecdotes and rumors about Ginger Rogers ever dished up anywhere, disguised as a biography. Like many opportunistic entertainment historians, Morley lacks any real understanding of how movies actually get made (and what the people who make them are really like) and instead serves up malicious gossip in a snide tone that passes for wit. Ginger Rogers had a hugely successful career in show business that lasted over half a century, but you'd never guess why from this shallow, nasty, misogynic book. Get Arlene Croce's "Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers Book" instead -- still the last word.

Why would someone want to write such a mean spirited book about a beautifully talented actress and dancer who has brought so much joy throughout her life to others? Who would buy this book but a fan?... Save your money! Mr. Morley writes this book with cruel intentions, his facts can not be substantiated by anyone who is alive, so he can say whatever he pleases. Funny how he waited till the year she dies to get his nasty book published. If you already purchased the book like I did... you can cut out the nice pictures.

Not a particularly complimentary book about a great star and not a particularly good one either. In a mere 88 pages Morley just touches the surface of Miss Rogers life (after all she lived for almost 84 years). This book could have gone into a lot more depth and there wasn't really anything new that I learned from reading this text (a lot of it I felt was just rumours and speculation). I was interested however to hear about Ginger's final public appearance in December 1994 in London (althogh he only mentioned it briefly) only to discover later on that infact Ginger had made her last public appearance when she was honored by the WIC in March 1995 (just 5 weeks before her death). One of the other maddening things about the book was the front cover, which shows Ginger with Fred Astaire, as if to go along with the ignorant belief that all Ginger was was his dancing partner and there was no Rogers without Astaire. This book is unreliable on just about all counts. People are much better off reading Ginger's autobiography, a much more reliable source.

I could not believe how bad this was. I have been a fan of Ginger's for a long time & saw her recieve her award at the Night of 100 Stars in London just a few months befroe she died. I was shocked at how mean & unpleasant this book was. It skirted through much of her career & life, & was a incredibly dismissive of all that she had done-ironic considering she was a highly skilled actor, dancer, artist, comedienne & athlete with a warm & affecting singing ability & a feisty & fun personality & real professionalism. Whilst i do not need hagiography, this biography seemed to simply want to demlosh her completely. The photos were a treat though, but i reccomned reading her own autobiography or Homer Dickens' Films of...If you are already a fan, you will be angered & disappointed by this book, & if not you will not get any true idea of her talents from it. Ultimately, a totally pointless exercise in vitriol.

I bought this book shortly after Miss Rogers passed away.

I had enjoyed watching her films with my Grandmother, who adored Ginger! I simply wanted to learn more about the ladies life, work and add shine to my memories of "Nan".

While I was not looking for cheesy and sickly sentimental representations of Miss Roger's life, I did not expect to find the book to be so scathing, critical and frankly, bitchy.

It was nasty to the point of horribly dismissive and cruel. The photography is lovely, it could not fail to be, she was a beautiful woman. The written word here is just mean and spiteful and it assumes all her achievements to be accidental folly or ruthlessly aquired.

Morley has such an axe to grind, but why he does is best known to himself since he never discloses the source of his disdain. I hope no author is as cruel to the memory of his Father, the British actor Robert Morley, as he is to Miss Rogers. The only postive thing about this book is that you won't want to buy a Morley book again, and he has produced many on other stars.

Biographers can be hard to take at best, making a living by picking over the lives of others so disrespectfully, when they do so nastily it just smacks of the worse kind of envious resentment and inadequacy. As a boigrapher, Morley is as awful as Andrew Morton, the awful man who picked over Princess Diana's life both before and after her death. These people are like verbose vultures.

I should have listened to all the negative feedback in this forum on this item. Mr. Morley hasn't got a kind, or even fair, thing to say about his subject if he can't substitute something rotten for it. The entire "biography" is marred by mean-spiritedness (and isn't even entertaining on that dubious level). I say give it a wide berth.

This gentleman is one of the nastiest writers around, he has done a horrible job on his bio of Ginger Rogers, mean spirited and such clap trap, no true fan of Ginger would want this added to their library unless of course it is a library for trash. Mr. Morley also wrote a horribly angry nasty attack book on Judy Garland a few years back, real filth. This man cannot stand true talent, especially the wonderful talents from the golden age of film. Bottom line....why bother?

One can only imagine the author Sheridan Morley obtained his employment at The SPectator and on the BBC due to who his father was and NOT because of any talent or insight he has about actors and acting. This is clearly revealed in the petty, pointless attack on Ginger Rogers in his sorry excuse for a review of her career.

I couldn't agree with the above review any more.